Of Lords and Ladies
by KMchase
Summary: The Hogwarts 7th Years are assigned a project that requires them to step into the shoes of a Medieval witch or wizard for two months. Will Lady Lily survive working alongside the laziest Lord ever, James? And why is Sirius speaking Scottish? R&R!


Disclaimer :: I don't own Harry Potter. It's as simple as that. I'm probably not the first one have this idea of a school project either. So don't sue me.

Hey, please review!! I love reviews!!! In this chapter, Sirius is a little scary, but he'll get more mature as time goes on. Also,  the italics aren't working at times. Hope it's not too confusing. Anyways, enjoy!

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            … "And of course the Goblin rebellions widely affected that community by destroying their only herd of goats…" Professor Binns droned on and on. Gryffindor 7th Year Lily Evans let her head fall to the desk. History of Magic was the most boring class of the day, and the fact that it was her last one did not help any. She swore if she heard about one more Goblin rebellion she was going to die.

            "Most historiwizards today see these rebellions as a sign that…"

            Lily lifted her head, only to see James Potter and Sirius Black having a sword fight, complete with sound effects, with their quills in the back row. Remus Lupin was watching them and laughing a bit. These were three of the most wanted boys at school, but Lily honestly didn't see why. Well, Remus wasn't so bad. He was a prefect, and had always been friendly to Lily. The other two, however…

            "…Project needed to graduate."

            Lily was snapped back to reality by the word "project." Professor Binns never assigned projects. Usually all he did was talk. Lily listened as the Professor went on, trying her best not to be put to sleep by his monotone.

            "The project will require you all to live as medieval witches and wizards for two months. You will each have a role, such as knight or peasant, and you will have duties to carry out based on your role. Also, you will work with a partner, whether it is a business associate or a marriage, to help you build a successful society. Any questions?"

            Lily looked over and saw the hand of her best friend, Lian Sommers, shoot into the air. 

            "Yes, Miss Smithey?" Binns asked.

            "Will we get to choose who we are?"

            "No, your roles will be assigned to you. Anyone else?"

            A voice called out from the back of the room.

            "Do we get to be King?"

            The class laughed softly as Professor Binns answered James's question.

            "Yes, one student from your year will get to be King."

            This sent the class into a buzz. Everyone was talking about what roles they hoped to get, and asking questions such as,

            "Do we have to actually act all medieval?"

            "Yeah, do we have to wear those weird tights?"

            Professor Binns just sat watching the discussion for a moment, looking quite bored, until he shouted,

            "The assignments for your roles and partners will be posted in your common rooms later tonight. Class dismissed!"

            Classrooms all up and down the halls of Hogwarts were quickly emptied of their people. Everyone was talking about the project.

            "Wonder who will get to be Queen?" Lian asked Lily as they headed back to the Gryffindor common room.

            "Well, we only have to wait until later tonight to find out," Lily answered.

* * *

            "I AM GOING TO KILL SOMEONE!" Lian stomped into the Gryffindor girls' dormitory later that night. Lily just about jumped out of her skin with surprise. She and Rachel White, another of Lily's good friends, had been studying for their upcoming potions test when Lian had interrupted the peace.

            "What happened?" Lily asked.

            "The lists are up."

            "And?"

            "I'm a peasant. And my partner, not to mention _husband_, is Sirius Black!"

            "Oooohhhhh," said Lily. Lian and Sirius had never gotten on too well. Lily swore it was the similarity of character. They were both outgoing, kind of flirty, and funny. Despite the obvious similarities however, Lian said they were as similar as she was to the Giant Squid.

            "You've got it bad, but I wouldn't want to be Holly Coleman right now," Rachel was saying, referring to another of their roommates. "Her partner's Snape." At this, all three girls winced. Lily got up and said,

            "Well, I guess it's probably time to go see what Slytherin slime ball I'll have to be with for the next two months."

            "How do you know it'll be a Slytherin?" Lian asked.

            "With my luck? Huh, easily!" Lily replied and left the dormitory, Rachel following close behind.

            The common room was a mad house. Everyone was trying to see what their assignment would be, and things were not looking good. Complaints were flying from every direction; it seemed no one was happy with their role. This did not do anything to heighten Lily's spirits, but she pushed her way through the crowd to the list anyway. People were shoving her from side to side, but she managed to be able to tell that the list was in alphabetical order. She looked down the list for her name.

            "Enninger, Joseph…. Ah! Evans, Lily! Here it is," she mumbled to herself and tried her best to read the information next to her name.

**_Evans, Lily._**

**_TITLE: Lady_**

PARTNER: James Potter

INFORMATION: Lady of Sparrow's Loch

Recently wedded to Lord James Potter

Rules knights, peasants, and serfs

30 servants

96 acres

            The bad news was not done sinking in before Lily heard Rachel's voice calling out,

            "Lily! Lily! LILY! READ MINE TOO IF YOU CAN!"

            Lily looked all the way to the bottom of the list.

**_White, Rachel._**

**_TITLE: Queen_**

**_PARTNER: Remus Lupin_**

**_INFORMATION: Queen of Darkenhall_**

**_Arranged marriage to King Remus Lupin_**

**_Rules all nobility, peasantry, & otherwise_**

**_60 servants_**

**_200 acres_**

            Lily groaned as she began to make her way back out of the crowd. She was stuck with arrogant, immature, James Potter for a husband, and her two best friends were working with _his_ two best friends. She got the feeling she'd be seeing a lot of him. When she reappeared out of the crowd, she saw Rachel looking at her expectantly.

            "You're Queen," said Lily dully. "And Remus is King."

            Rachel's eyes went wide, and then she began to jump up and down, singing,

            "Yes! I'm Queen, I'm Queen, I'm QUEEN!" She ran around the common room telling everyone who would listen. Lily watched her grudgingly for a moment until she felt someone drape and arm over her shoulders. She turned to see James Potter standing there.

            "Well, looks like we'll be spending a lot of time together over the next month, seeing as we're recently wedded and all," he said with a half grin. Lily shook his arm off.

            "Only as much as it takes for us not to fail," she said, and turned on her heel. She headed back towards the dormitory, feeling that this would be a very long two months.

* * *

            The next morning, halfway through breakfast, Professor McGonagall stood up and asked for everyone's attention.

            "Ahem, there will be a meeting for all 7th Year students here in the Great Hall after breakfast is over. We will please ask that you not disappear, as this meeting is mandatory. Thank you," she spoke, and sat back down. Lily, Rachel, and Lian looked at each other, knowing full well what the meeting would be about. About a half an hour later, after all the younger students had been dismissed to class, Professor McGonagall stood up again. This time, Professor Binns stood up as well, and some of the other teachers began passing out papers.

            "This meeting has been called to let you all know the further details of your Graduation Project," McGonagall said. Lily listened as she looked down at the paper, entitled "**7th Year Graduation Project: The Medieval World of Wizardry.**"

            "Now, we will be going over the rules and regulations outlined on your paper. When you have reached the end of the page, tap the space that says 'tap here' and the next set of rules will appear. Now, could you all please look at the first heading; "**Building a Medieval Dynasty: The Crucial Elements**…"

            It took a half an hour to explain the first page of rules, which was only to be followed by a second page of them. When the command was given, various quills tapped the 'tap here,' and the previous writing was replaced by more and more regulations.

            "Whoa, this thing is a beast!" Lian muttered to Lily. Lily laughed softly, but agreed that there were certainly a lot of rules for medieval role-playing.

            "…to read the rest of the rule book for yourself by tomorrow. Now, will you please quietly move to be seated with your partner. QUIETLY!" McGonagall said as people began to move around. Lily looked around, but could not locate James. Finally, she got up on her chair to see over everyone, but still no sign of him. _Where is that little prick?_ she thought as she looked around again. Suddenly, someone grabbed her around the ankles and pulled her off of the chair. She shrieked as she tripped, and found herself gripping the robes of a laughing James Potter.

            "Ow! Let go of me!" Lily said as she tried to disentangle herself from James, who was still laughing.

            "Ms Evans! Mr. Potter! Sit down, both of you!" came Professor McGonagall's voice. They did so, and McGonagall went on,

            "Please fill in the plan on the last page of the rule sheet with your partner. Please be serious about it, as you will be turning it in for a grade. Now get to work!"

            Lily turned to James and read aloud the first (and only) question. 

            "As 'blank' and 'blank', what are your future plans for your family and relations with others? How do you plan to make an impact on society?" She filled in the blanks with Lord and Lady, and looked up at James.

            "So? What are our future plans?"

            James grinned.

            "I don't care what we do, just as long we name the house 'The Palace of James' and spend lots of money."

            Lily looked at him incredulously.

            "What would you spend money _on_? Almost nothing you would want now would've existed back then."

            "Well, I would buy myself some land for a Quidditch pitch first thing," James answered as if he had been planning this forever.

            "We have 96 acres already! What do you need more land for? Plus, I doubt Quidditch was quite perfected at that time," Lily argued and turned to Lian to see how she was getting along. So far, it didn't look good. She and Sirius were in a heated argument over which of them should get a job.

            "Women didn't work back then! Besides, I'm not getting up at the crack of dawn every morning to break my back working while you sit on your fat arse!"

            Lily shook her head and looked back down at the parchment in her lap, only to find that it wasn't there anymore! Next to her, James was scribbling on it.

            "We named our house 'The Palace of James', and Lord James got a Quidditch pitch. That is the story of our lives. Oh and –" James was cut off in the middle of dictating his future as he wrote it by Lily snatching the parchment from him.

            "Give – me – that!" James said as he struggled to get it back. Lily just snatched it away again. She hurriedly crossed out everything he had written, and began to outline their future, the Lily way. After about a half an hour full of debating and (sort of) compromising, their paper read:

- We named our house 'The Palace of James', and Lord James got a Quidditch pitch. That is the story of our lives. Oh and (all of this was now crossed out)

- We plan to build a friendly relationship with our servants and all who are tied to our land. We wish our peasants and serfs to be faithful to us, and the only way for us to do that is to interact with them and maintain a healthy friendship. We also hope to change agriculture by putting into place a new system of irrigation, which will allow crops to have better drainage and healthier soil. Our short-term plans include getting accustomed to married life and for Lord James to build a Quidditch pitch on our land so that he may perfect his technique.-

            James argued that his technique was already perfected, but he let Lily turn in their paper that way anyways. When Lily got back to her seat, a new problem had arisen (or been reawakened). Lian and Sirius were still arguing, and it looked like one was ready to murder the other any second.

            "Well, if you're just going to SIT there and not do any work, then this marriage is really not going to work out! Maybe I'LL just write the answers so we don't FAIL!" Lian was shouting sarcastically.

            "Fine by me," Sirius said lazily, putting his hands behind his head and leaning back in his chair.

            "AARGHHH!" Lian screamed, grabbed the paper, and turned on her heel. Lily watched her go, and said to Sirius,

            "Maybe you should put some work in on this project, Sirius. Lian has a tendency to overwork herself sometimes. Just get into the spirit. BE medieval. Well, at least consider it?"

            Sirius narrowed one eye at her for a horrible moment and which she thought he would say no, but instead he said,

            "Ok, I'll think about it. Maybe I'll have to resurrect my quill. It hasn't been used properly in, uh, must be over a year by now…"

            At that moment, Professor McGonagall stood up again and cleared her throat.

            "I believe we have everyone's papers? Good, then you are all dismissed to your third period classes."

            The rest of the day went by quickly. Mostly because it was Friday, but also because the teachers had not assigned any real homework, just to look over the rules again and plan for upcoming events regarding the project. Everyone was overjoyed to have a free weekend, and were celebrating in various ways. James was so excited that he didn't even work the Quidditch team too hard during practice that evening, and then stayed out at the pitch until after dark just flying around. Lily, meanwhile, spent a small amount of time reading up on the Middle Ages, but quit after a while to be immersed in her favorite book. Between Sirius running around the common room speaking "medieval," and having no homework, the atmosphere in Gryffindor tower that night was cheerful. Lily laughed to herself as she thought about the first day of medieval life and wondered what the second would bring.

* * *

            The next morning, James slept late. Well, he usually slept late, but today was unusually late. When he finally opened his eyes, sunlight was already streaming through the dormitory windows. He yawned, rolled out of bed, and stepped on something hard.

            "Oi! Prongs! Careful laddie, you'll be treadin' on your child!" Sirius said.

            "Huh – my WHAT?" James grabbed his glasses from the bedside table, put them on, and the object on the floor came into focus. There, lying in a basket, was a baby doll. It was dressed in a white dress and there was a sign across the front of the basket, which read, "Congratulations, It's A Girl!" 

            "Your child," said Remus mildly. "We've already got ours."

            James looked up. Sirius's bed must have had eight baby dolls on it, and he was holding two more.

            "Aye, an' I be havin' a billion!" Sirius exclaimed. James did his best to ignore Sirius. He looked at Remus and asked,

            "What's going on? Do you suddenly have kids too – wait, why is he speaking with a Scottish accent?" James shot a glance at Sirius.

            "He's not. It's his version of speaking 'medieval.' He's 'getting into the spirit of the project,' as he explains it," Remus answered as the both watched Sirius throw the various baby dolls up in the air and (sometimes) catch them. This harmless activity went on for a little while, but tt wasn't long before Sirius got a little too aggressive and the baby dolls began to fly around the room.

            "TAKE COVER!" James yelled as he began to run towards the dormitory door.

            "Wait! We can't leave our children here all alone with him!" Remus called, and snatched up James's baby doll and two more, which James assumed were the princes of Darkenhall. Remus tossed James his baby doll, and the two of them ran down the stairs into the common room. A few of the people in it looked up as they entered, holding three baby dolls between them. Lily saw James and Remus, saw the baby dolls, and saw the fact that James was still wearing his pajamas. He raced over to her, and as he did, she asked,

            "What happened to you?"

            "Sirius – he's gone mad –" he turned to Lian who was sitting next to Lily. "He's throwing your children and speaking in a Scottish accent!" James panted. Lian looked quite afraid. James turned back to Lily. "Here, we have a kid now. It's a girl," he said, shoving the baby doll at her.

            "Whoa! Well, we have to name it, and take care of it, and raise it, and it's ours for the next two months," she said knowledgably.

            "How'd you know all that?" James asked.

            "I actually listened when they went over the rule book with us. Now, what are we going to name it?"

            "Baby?"

            "Baby is not a name! We have to think up something original, but appropriate for the time period."

            "Lady Baby of Sparrow's Loch?"

            "No Baby! Think original here, James!"

            "Ok, Eldest Plastic Child of Sparrow's Loch. Original. No one else is going to name their kid that."

            "No one should name their kid that in the first place, which is why we're not going to. How about Rose? I like Rose."

            James rolled his eyes at Lily, but said,

            "Fine, as long as the kid plays Quidditch. I don't want the family being a complete failure."

            "Whatever you say," Lily half mumbled as she wrote the baby's name on the birth certificate attached to it's dress. "Ok, now we have to treat her like a real child. Taking care of a baby is a big job."

            "We got lucky! Sirius and Lian got stuck with ten of these!" James exclaimed.

            "Aye, and you'll be takin' em' for today, lassie!" Everyone jumped as Sirius appeared behind them, carrying all ten baby baskets. He began to hand them, one by one, to Lian. She issued a loud protest.

            "Hey! You can't leave them all with me! Where are you going anyway that says the kids aren't allowed?"

            "Well, I was goin' ta practice my flyin' skills, an' then hang 'round the lake an' pick up some lassies –"

            "Whoa!" said Lily. "Sirius, you're a married man with kids! And besides, I think some of them can come with you to the Quidditch pitch."

            Sirius brightened at this.

            "Ok, an' then I can drop 'em off 'ere with Lian –"

            "No, you can't," Lian protested again.

            "Aw, I got ta take 'em with me?" Sirius looked utterly disappointed. James clapped him on the back.

            "Welcome to medieval married life, my friend."

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Hope you liked it! Hopefully more to come soon. Thanks for reading!

~*Kat*~


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